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of fire, could not hit the Americans. In less
than three hours all eight of the Spanish
vessels had been sunk or set afire. Their
crews had sustained casualties in the hun-
dreds, while the Americans incurred only
nine wounded. Dewey maintained a block-
ade of Manila Bay until the arrival of Amer-
ican naval and army reinforcements enabled
the U.S. forces to lay close siege to Manila.
Dewey had already enlisted the Filipino
nationalist rebels to take the field in sup-
port of his enterprise, and Spanish troops in
outlying areas of the archipelago were
unable to reverse the direction of events.
By August Manila had formally surren-
dered. The cession of the P
HILIPPINE
I
SLANDS
to the United States soon followed, although
resistance from die-hard Spanish support-
ers would last for another year. The betrayed
nationalist fighters prolonged their war
against their new U.S. colonial overlords for
several years beyond that.
beginning of a pattern of official corruption
and extravagant waste that left a dubious
legacy to his successors. Manuel was, how-
ever, a patron of the arts and the “Manue-
line” style in architecture preserves the
memory of his lavish tastes.
Manuel was obliged to maintain a pre-
carious balance in his international policy.
His own ambition and the achievements of
explorers such as P
EDRO
Á
LVA R E S
C
ABRAL
,
who “discovered” B
RAZIL
in 1500, and sol-
diers such as F
RANCISCO
DE
A
LMEIDA
and
A
FONSO
DE
A
LBUQUERQUE
steadily expanded
his empire in the Far East. Yet Spain was
predominant in Europe, and Manuel had to
conciliate her by an agreement to the divi-
sion of overseas territory, the adoption of
Spain's policy of expelling the Jews, and the
maintenance of a close dynastic alliance.
This last strategy led to his marrying three
Spanish princesses in succession. Ultimately
the inheritance of Manuel, with all its daz-
zling wealth and far-flung dependencies,
would pass to Portugal's old rival, Spain.
Manuel I (Manoel I)
(1469-1522)
king of Portugal
The sobriquet given to this monarch, “the
Fortunate,” was well deserved, for he was
the beneficiary of a century of Portuguese
initiatives aimed at securing a seaborne
trade route to the Indies. When Manuel
succeeded his cousin John II in 1495, the
Cape of Good Hope had already been
reached and the first mercantile expedition
was already in preparation. The voyage of
V
ASCO
DA
G
AMA
(1497-99) opened the way
to Portuguese commercial and military
domination of the Far East and brought tre-
mendous wealth to Portugal. Manuel and
his courtiers were the principal beneficia-
ries of the spice trade and other sources of
enrichment, though his reign also saw the
Manuel II (Manoel II)
(1889-1932)
king of Portugal
The second son of C
HARLES
I, Manuel grew
up during the tumultuous decades that cul-
minated in the assassination of his father
and elder brother in 1908. Barely 19, the
young monarch had little prospect of sur-
viving a renewed onslaught from revolu-
tionary republicans who pointed to the
oppressive tactics of a conservative govern-
ment, a long history of corruption in high
places, and a generalized poverty that left
only a tiny ruling elite to enjoy the wealth
generated by the colonial empire. In 1910
Manuel was driven from his throne by an
insurrection that proclaimed a republic
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